On
UN Budget, US
Is Said to
Flipflop on
Development
&
Transparency,
Hobnobbing
with Malcorra?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
December 23/4,
updated -- As
the UN budget
fight
stretched into
Christmas Eve,
US Ambassador
for Management
Joe Torsella
was seen
huddled with
the current
head of the UN
Department of
Field Support
Susana
Malcorra,
who's pegged
as promoted by
"Westerners"
to replace
Asha Rose
Migiro of
Tanzania as
Deputy
Secretary
General.
Among
the
diplomats
waiting
around,
complaints
emerged not
only about
flights
they might
miss but about
US positions
allegedly
shifting at
the last
minute, on
"development."
Torsella, who
has spoken and
tweeted
for months
about
transparency,
is seen by
some as
shifting now
to
backroom or at
least hallway
politics, with
the West's
handpicked
promoter for
Ban Ki-moon's
second term.
The rationale
for the
affable
Malcorra's
entrance at
11:40 pm may
have been
discussion of
the UN Mission
in Ivory Coast
or Cote
d'Ivoire,
UNOCI (or
ONUCI to the
French).
The Ivorian
budget expert
is among the
most able,
though he
spend much of
2011 in the
transition
from Gbagbo to
Ouattara.
Earlier in the
month he
conferred with
Inner City
Press about
how Prime
Minister Soro
could speak to
the media. Now
he is back on
the budget,
and
omnipresent.
Many
boxes of
pizza were
served, where
the night
before --
erroneously
called by
some the last
night -- the
Qatari
President of
the General
Assembly
had provided
fried rice and
spicy Asian
chicken.
Friday
afternoon
the PGA
"suspended"
what was
supposed to be
the last
General
Assembly
meeting of the
year,
predicting
that the
budget
would be done
soon. That did
not pan out.
Inner
City Press
went out and
scanned what
had earlier in
the night been
presented as
the "Final
Deal" of
$5.152 billion
-- in the
spirit of
transparency it is being
put online
here,
complete with
handwritten
notation "to
be deferred to
November 2012"
for "post
recosting."
But
as the night
wore on, some
said the
number had
risen to
$5.163
billion.
Vienna Cafe
earlier Dec
23, pizza not
yet shown (c)
MRLee
Torsella
had live
tweeted lesser
meetings, on UMOJA and
a postponed
gabfest
with the
Council on
Foreign
Relations.
Why go silent
now? Here's
hoping this
turns around,
in the spirit
of the means
are the ends.
Can the UN
handle
transparency?
This is a
test. Watch
this
site.
Update
of 12:45
am: The
aforementioned
and still
affable Susana
Malcorra told
Inner City
Press, "they
just approved
the SPM
budget, that's
why I'm here."
There's a
start.
, 
